This is the blog of Agreeable Agony, a kink friendly shop, dealing in handmade toys and synthetic rope. This blog covers all related topics, including new products, news about what we're up to, and discussion of topics that we feel are important. We strive to support consent culture and pleasure positive living.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Hey guys, wanted to poke our collective head out of our collective burrow to point out some of the shiny new photos we've got up on our homepage. Both are pretty shots of our products being used (rather enthusiastically) by some of our customers. We've done a bit of creative editing, since they're on our front page, but what we'd really like are action shots of our products for their respective pages.

Rather than fussing with countless stock photos, or continuing to pretend we know photoshop, we're hoping to pull our community together to help show our products in their natural environment. If you have purchased any of our awesome toys, and want to help us out, send us your photos using our products, and if we like them, we'll post them on the pages showing off that product.

Any photos can be sent to info@agreeableagony.com, please include how, if at all, you would like to be credited. Also, we cannot post any pictures that are pornograpic. Agreeable Agony reserves the right to edit any photos sent to us before posting them to our homepage.

Looking forward to hearing about how everyone likes to use our toys.
Also, we added a cute little squid.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Hey guys, Desmond here, with a few thoughts I had earlier while watching Iron Chef...

I love to cook. With that in mind, it makes sense that I have many friends who, likewise, love to cook. One thing I often hear from friends is how much fun it can be to play in the kitchen. Perhaps it's the excitingly dangerous tools on the wall , the sensual heat of the oven, or the memory of exotic and spicy meals from days gone by. Whatever leads to this piqued interest, I find no shortage of friends, kinksters and otherwise, who find the idea of getting down and dirty in a well stocked kitchen a fantasy worth retelling.

For those of you who don't know me, it's important to mention here that I engage in D/s play. I identify as a Dom, and am rather proud of that fact. I love to wield power, and control those who wish to be controlled. I also think the kitchen can be one of the most exciting rooms in the house. My interests in the kitchen, however, are far from the ideas that I have heard time and time again. My interests are in the fascinating dynamic between the Chef and their Sous Chef.

Brigade de cuisine is a term used to describe the division of duties in a professional kitchen, creating a militaristic hierarchy, featuring the Chef at the top. Every single person in a well trained kitchen staff is working as an extra hand of the chef. Without them, he would not be able to create the elaborate dishes he is tasked with serving up. Without him, they would lack strong direction and leadership. If he gives an order, they are there to carry it out exactly to his liking, as they have come to learn by working with him. The best kitchen crews have spent years learning how to work with and for their chef.

Directly below the Chef sits the Sous Chef. In the absence of "Chef", the sous chef can often act in his place. For a lower line cook to disrespect their sous chef is tantamount to disrespecting their chef. Sous Chef is not a position without power, it is a spot reserved for the best of the best, with the most rewards, but also the most responsibility. It is, without question, still a subordinate role to the Chef.

The strong D/s dynamic between the Chef and Sous comes by necessity. Every second the sous spends questioning the chef is a second lost, so unwavering loyalty is demanded. They must trust each other completely, knowing how each works so as to best gauge timings of dishes. Chef needs to know that their Sous will get the jobs they delegate without needing to check in. The Sous, on the other hand, needs to know when it's appropriate to get the Chef's go-ahead on a particular piece of a dish, and when to use their own better judgement.

A chef holds absolute authority. If something is not done to their liking, it will be redone, and they don't care if you just spent an hour reducing those caramelized onions, how dare you waste an hour of the chef's valuable time, not to mention the onions. The mutual reliance on skill and efficiency between the two makes for one of the tightest bonds in the kitchen.

These facets of the relationship make me wonder why, when so many of my friends enjoy sex in the kitchen, more of them don't act out this sort of RP fantasy. People play with military scenes all the time, and this is not much different. With the exception of the skills required, which can be learned, there is not a very high barrier to entry, and it's arguably one of the most useful fetishes to learn to efficiency.

Spend an hour in the kitchen learning how to work with, and not just around your loved one. Find roles to fill and carry them with pride and confidence befitting them. Kitchen staff, like militia, come from a proud heritage, and to play their roles, you need to be a little willing to work along the way. But at the end of the night, you've got two playmates, wound-up from an hour of D/s that can be as intense or relaxed as you'd like, and a whole romantic meal between you and throwing your lover down right there on the kitchen floor. Say what you will about the delay, but sometimes waiting is worth it. And if it's not, dinner won't mind being left by itself for a bit while the chefs get frisky.

My friends can keep their old standby sex on the counter, I'm going to button up my whites and start barking orders. Now, where's my Sous Chef with that hollandaise?

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Intro’s & Breaking News:Snarksy here! Some of you may know me through other names, but I am glad to now be gracing the Agreeable Agony blog with a monthly (or more) dose of McSnarkerson charm. Hopefully I don’t bore you to tears.....unless you are into that, :P.In past lives, I have written and blogged a decent amount, both for a few research projects (which are currently still “in the lab” but will likely be shared here in due time) on BDSM & social justice issues, as well as with my grown-up-person name for some more mainstream NGO’s.My interests are myriad, but I specifically am passionate about repro-justice, education, sex-education and progressive activism, and this will likely be reflected in my blog posts. I love making spreadsheets, black-tea and teensy modicums of social change. Below I’ve re-purposed an older blog (also online at http://bit.ly/yttxqL), for your reading pleasure. Feel free to comment, and I shall be back around in the near future!-SnarksyBreaking News: Women Can Be Independent and Intimate(Things you never knew until you googled “polyamory.”)Since the beginning of October I have been working as a super-part-time research assistant, helping a professor track down some sources on polyamory from blogs and news articles online. Rarely am I paid for something quite so entertaining. Most articles are written by poly-folks or friends and cover relatively mundane issues (child-raising, meeting the family, etc.) We won’t talk about those. Rather, today I want to present you with some pure gold. If you already knew that women can be independent and intimate, never fear. Here is some more internet magic*.

“Why Homosexual Behavior Is More like Consensual Incest and Polyamory than Race or Gender” - Part 1

One writer’s thoughts on Rick Perry and Mormons: He thinks they are polyamorous space-cadets (!?)

“Rael, leader of the International Raelian Movement, has sent an open letter to Tiger Woods urging him to”.... divorce and enjoy polyamory.

Of course, no discussion of all these crazy liberal sex whores would be complete without a healthy dose of “wtf, gay people.” Courtesy of ABP (sadly, not the over-priced pastry shop, but rather the Associated Baptist Press) I learned that the real issue with those queer kids was that they wanted to destroy marriage. Which marriages, you ask? (No, what...why would you ask that?) “...any kind of marriage,” the not-pastry (dammit, I love pastries) “press” tells us. “They want to define marriage out of existence.” Wow! Who knew news could get so newsy?Even some of the poly-folk have jumped on board the crazy train. One women repeatedly implored us to recognize that she was not a slut with a revolving door of partners. Because clearly the best way to promote consensual non-monogamy is to bitterly separate yourself from non-monogamists. Others want to make sure we know that polyamory is never about sex, only about a poly-fidelitous (wiktionary says this is a word, so back off!) smug sense of superiority over the entire world. And who knew swingers could be such sell-outs? (Damn suburbanites and their over-developed sense of entitlement to privacy and discretion!)Overall my take-away here is that 85% of the internet has no frackin’ clue what polyamory is, but somehow has concluded they are superior and since the other 15% are so boring and normal everyone will skip them to learn about Rael the Raelian leader. (That article was apparently half-written by a computer, so even the AI are up in our shiz now.) In the mean time, I am left alone with my internet at night to resent those slutty poly-jerks whose underpants are filled with sex. No fair! How come they get to get laid and cause a precipitous decline towards incest and beastiality?*(I am not linking these because I do no want to promote traffic to their insanity, however, if you’d like to know more leave a comment and I will get the info out. However, just throwing “polyamory” into google blogs or news search will introduce you to an untold array of wonders.)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Hello everyone, just wanted to check in to talk about some of the changes that AgreeableAgony.com has been going through.

A couple weeks ago, we updated to include Harry Potter themed rope, and have been hearing loud and clear how excited everyone has been about it. We're always thrilled to be able to bring new and interesting products to our customers, and we hope, with your input, that we'll be able to continue bringing you products you ask for. A quick note about the Ravenclaw House colors, we opted to offer the Ravenclaw colors as they were portrayed in the movie (Blue/Silver). If you're interested in getting a Ravenclaw School Kit to match the colors from the book series (Blue/Bronze), contact us, and we can work it out for you.

We've also added descriptions to all of our items, which can be seen by mousing over any of the product images. There is currently a known bug that causes the picture to fade back in if your mouse turns into a text cursor (if you put your mouse over the actual words in the description). This is being worked on, and we're hoping to have a fix for it soon. In the meantime, we wanted to get the new features up and running on the main website.

We've also recently added a Wholesale page for any companies who are interested in carrying Agreeable Agony products in their own stores. It can be found at the bottom of every page, between our Contact Us page, and this blog's link (so you have no excuse for not seeing it! :-p). We do require our Wholesale customers to have a Federal Tax ID, but similar bulk discounts may be available for groups or associations who lack one. Please use our Contact Us form if you're interested in getting more information on bulk discounts for your group.

We will continue doing our best to keep up with your questions and suggestions. Our current average response time on posts to our Contact Us form is less than 6 hours, though this will vary based on time of day. Please, let us know how you think we're doing, and what you'd like to see done differently. We're always looking to improve the services we offer.

Again, we're super excited to be sending out these updates; we're looking forward to continuing to serve you, our community, to the very best of our abilities. To do that, we need to know how you think we're doing. So let us know, we're always listening!